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12 Days of Christmas Event 2023

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wavewright62:
Hello and welcome to our brand-new event for 2023, modelled on the '12 Days of Christmas'  Tonight and over the next days (through 4 January Forum time), we will be featuring a new fanwork each day, celebrating our seasons and this time of year in our own corners of the fandom.  The first night, 24 December, is the big Yule / Jul / Joulu celebration night in some parts of the world including Finland, so tonight our lovely mod Jitter is here to kick things off with the continuing adventures of Emil & Lalli's extended post-canon family Rakel and their child Lumi.


Yule Peace
Lumi loved the Yule celebrations. Many days leading up to the Yule Feast were spent in busy preparations. Cleaning, baking, decorating, crafting of gifts, everything was so exciting! A welcome breather in the hustle and bustle was offered in the couple of nights when most of the village gathered to the centre square for Yule singing.

Lumi liked singing. Isi and äiti were both good singers, and uncle Onni had his kantele. Lumi was already learning to play! So, music was quite common in the Hotakainen household. But having everyone in the village sing together was powerful and filled her with a feeling of community.

Many of the Yule songs were strange. Some were happy and joyous tunes, and others were sad and haunting in a way that was different from runos, familiar and alien at the same time. There were several songs about snow and winter, and birds. “Sparrow in Yule morning” seemed to be one of the favourites of many adults, even though it was very sad! Lumi liked the happier ones better, such as, “Leave behind everyday worries” or “It’s five o’clock”.

Some of them were hard to understand. No one seemed to know for example what is a “manger”. Or why would people put on bells when moving around, abandoning all stealth and caution? But the adults just told her that many of the songs were from Before and maybe had made sense then. Weird that many songs from Before were so sad, even though everyone certainly had been all happy all the time! Isi sometimes said that the Old World had been stupid.

On the morning of Yule Eve, the roast was taken out of the oven and filled the house with its delicious scent. Next in were the casseroles (carrot, potato and rutabaga). They started the day with porridge and some final preparations. At noon they gathered at the square again for the declaration of Yule Peace. This year the radio worked well, so most of the text could actually be heard via radio from Saimaa. When parts of the broadcast broke up, one of the older people in Toivosaari, Marita, read the words for everyone to hear:

Today, by the grace of our highly honoured gods and beloved ancestors, we celebrate Yuletide as it marks the turning of another year.

And thus is declared a Peace of Yuletide for all, by advising everyone to embrace devotion in their celebration, and to behave otherwise quietly and peacefully.

If ever should anyone break this Peace and violate the Yule Feast by any illegal or improper behaviour, they shall be considered under aggravating circumstances to be guilty, and punished according to what the law and statutes prescribe for each and every crime and offence.

Finally, a joyous Yule Feast is wished upon all inhabitants of the country!

“Papa, what does “statute” mean?”

“Sorry dear, I don’t really know. But I do know it says you must behave nice and quiet!”

“Why would it say that? Yule is a happy festival! Isn’t it, mama?” Lumi ran after her mums. Rakel caught her in her arms and lifted her up to her lap.

“Yes, yes it is! But it’s also a time for remembering those who are not with us anymore.”

“Is that why we take candles to the graves later tonight?”

“Yes, that’s part of Yule as well.”

“And you know, Lumi,” isi added, “the ancestors join our celebrations. They also have a Yule sauna, and at night when we are sleeping, they share our feast.”

“Uncle Onni! What was Aunt Tuuri’s favourite Yule food?”

“Hmm… let me think.” The wind must have gotten to Onni’s eyes, “I suppose it might have been gingerbread. At least she had loads of those every year.”

“Gingerbread! I love gingerbread too!”


Vocabulary note: the word for Christmas in Finnish is joulu. As a word it doesn’t reference Christ or Christianity at all. So I think they would have just kept the name of the celebration even when the Old World gods went to oblivion and the midwinter was once again a celebration of new light and the Finnish gods and ancestors.

I wanted to include something of the contemporary Finnish Christmas, and these are things that may well have been preserved.

Concerts / sing along events of “Most beautiful Christmas songs” are very popular nowadays and Christmas songs are also probably among the most well-known songs, so it seems likely to me that the survivors would hold on to the songs even though some of the meanings would be lost. Much of it could be repurposed anyways, like the midwinter celebrations were repurposed for Christianity earlier. But I think some like Silent Night Holy Night could just remain even if it didn’t make complete sense anymore.

The declaration of Christmas Peace is an ancient tradition that was done in several Finnish cities in the Middle Ages. Turku has kept the tradition ongoing almost uninterrupted since the 1300s. It’s been broadcast for as long as there has been a broadcasting company in Finland. Nowadays it is televised, and many watch it live (myself included) at noon on the 24th December.

It’s also shown in several countries abroad as well as in the YLE streaming service. I include a youtube link for 2019 declaration (it is always the same, same songs and the same text, current text is from 1905). The reading of the declaration itself starts at about 6 minutes
https://www.joulukaupunkiturku.fi/en/christmas-city/declaration-christmas-peace



I am certain many people could recite the declaration from memory, especially if a few tried to do it together, so at first it would be true to the original (or rather, the year -1 version. I tweaked the text a bit as the Old World gods would not be invoked in around Y108. And the translation sounded les pompous than the Finnish text 😊

Other traditions include joulusauna, bringing of candles to the graves, and of course the feasting. The most iconic foods are ham (I think the Hotakainens are having lamb though), carrot, rutabaga and potato casseroles, and various kinds of pickled and smoked fish. The porridge in the morning is nowadays rice, Lumi and her family are having barley porridge.

Finally, here are a few of the songs. The most beloved Christmas songs are either gloomily beautiful or just gloomy. Sorry about that.

Varpunen jouluaamuna (Sparrow in Christmas morning)

Arkihuolesi kaikki heitä (Leave behind everyday worries)

Sylvian joululaulu (Christmas Song of Sylvia)

tonttujen jouluyö (Night of the tonttus)

Kello löi jo viisi officially Joulukirkkoon (It’s 5 o’clock AM) – a cappella version

On hanget korkeat nietokset (There’s snow and lots of snow)

Tonttu

Keep Looking:
Jitter, I love your imagining of Finnish Yule/Christmas traditions in the SSSS universe (and the children's misconceptions about what the old world was like!). I'm listening to the christmas songs you attached right now.

gjuerne:
Thank you, Jitter! I love descriptions of Solstice/Christmas traditions and it is a fun speculation on how they might have evolved in the SSSS universe.

Jitter:
Thank you Keep and Gjuerne! And extra thanks for our esteemed moderator for running the event and in my case also for including the note about who the people in the story are, because I totally forgot to do that. It’s in my Toivosaari continuum.

Lumi is the firstborn of the Hotakainen household, consisting of Lalli and Emil, now married, with Rakel (a reporter, originally from Iceland) and her Finnish wife Inka. They all live together forming a what is sometimes called a clover family. So isi is Lalli, pappa is Emil and äiti is her birth mother Inka. Since Inka is also a noita, it is no wonder Lumi is later a student of magic. Onni also lives at the homestead but he has his own house there.

wavewright62:

On this second day of our Christmas event, dmeck7755 gave to us - a lovely poem and best wishes of the season!



The longest night had the moon aglow
The silence of the forest and the shadows below.

There is time pause, to reflect and ponder
I wish for next year to be happy and not so somber.

We think about this past year, the sorrows and tears
Wars, politics and anger playing to our fears.

People are hurting, people are sad
We have each other here and this makes me glad

We are from all over around the globe
Different ages, and people and groups all told

We have fun, chat and lend a listening ear
All these people, we hold so dear.

We have our little spot here so bright
We try as we can to keep up the light

I am grateful for you the forum
We laugh, we cry, we talk, we have fun

We treat each with respect and more
These are the things worth fighting for

I wish all a glorious yule.
Or any other holiday that means the most to you.

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